Domestic researchers have for the first time discovered that autism spectrum disorder manifests in the brain as two distinct types of change. Autism spectrum disorder has been difficult to treat because it is associated with more than 1,200 causative genes, so treatment has been limited to merely alleviating symptoms. However, when viewed on the basis of changes in the brain, the variables have been found to compress into just two types, opening the possibility of more fundamental treatment of the disorder.

According to the Ministry of Science and ICT on the 18th, a joint research team led by Kim Eunjoon, Director of the Synapse and Neural Circuit Research Center at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI), analyzed the brains of mice carrying mutations respectively in 17 autism-risk genes and obtained these results. The experiments showed that even when the genes causing autism differ, the brains fell into only two groups when classified by gene activity. In one group, activity related to the exchange of signals between neurons decreased, while in the other group it increased. Similar changes were observed in brain data from actual patients with autism.

The core of this study is that mice showing the same type of brain change may exhibit similar responses to the same drug. This indicates that, regardless of the cause of autism, the mechanisms of treatment can in effect be compressed into two. As there is no longer a need to target each of the roughly 1,200 causative genes individually, the findings provide a clue that could simplify autism treatment research.

The researchers plan to verify whether the same types of brain change appear in human cells and to continue research to identify therapeutic candidate substances tailored to each type. The results were published in the international journal Science on the 18th.

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